YIDDISH AND POWER

Presented by Dovid Katz.

(Litvak Studies Institute, Vilnius; www.DovidKatz.net; www.DefendingHistory.com)

Although politically powerless for virtually all its thousand year history, Yiddish has played, and continues to play, a key role in starkly differing episodes of Jewish civilization , and has become an integral part of various movements entailing empowerment. These include the rights of women and Hebraically unable men to Jewish legal knowledge; to the enjoyment of non-Jewish literature; to esoteric kabbalistic knowledge; to modern secular culture; to revolutionary movements; to various stages of older Hasidism and contemporary Ultra-orthodoxy. Yiddish has also played a walk-on role in various non-Jewish movements, including missionary work, Soviet communism and post-Soviet Jewish politics in the east of the European Union.